An optical data bus transceiver (110), optical data bus system (100) and method (300) employ a disambiguation signal to resolve bit ambiguities in a summation signal on an optical data bus (104). The optical data bus transceiver includes a transmitter (112) connected to the optical bus and configured, in conjunction with another transmitter (112′, 120), to produce on the optical bus the summation signal during a first interval and the disambiguation signal during a second interval. The optical data bus transceiver further includes a receiver (114) configured to receive (310) the summation signal. The summation signal includes a summation of separate data signals from each of the transceiver transmitter (112) and the other transmitter (112′, 120). The disambiguation signal includes information to resolve bit ambiguities in the summation signal. A bit ambiguity results from a summation of data bits in each of the respective data signals during a symbol period of the first interval.